"Please kill me."

It was as if time froze at that moment.

Mika did not move nor did he change his cold expression after hearing the painful and sad tone of his friend, begging him to kill him.

No one was around them.

The cold wind blew his face, making his face injuries sting.

"Let me help you. There must be a way to save you." Mika stated indifferently, finally taking his first step toward Gerard.

"You know fully well that there isn’t a method...!" Gerard retorted jokingly despite the graveness of his own situation.

"First, we will stop the bleeding. Then-"

"Mika..."

"I know that this will be painful but you have to bear with Excalibur being stuck in your leg a little longer. I-"

"Mika...!"

"Once she returns, I could ask Olivia to look into this matter. Maybe she has a clue-"

"Mika!"

Gerard’s voice did not tremble nor did it sound weak.

"..."

Stunnedly, Mika stared at Gerard.

"It’s impossible to cure me... Even the ability of your sword can’t override my fate..."

Gerard’s head hung low.

"You’ve heard it from them, right? I caused quite a commotion once I received my relic."

Mika remembered the demons talking about it.

"So what about it...?" Mika wondered bitterly.

"At the brink of death, I was surrounded by countless demons and yet... I didn’t accept my end. Rather than that, I wished that I had more power... Enough power to stand up against them."

Since he was born, Gerard was just an average person. Even after enrolling in the academy of Loogam, he continued living with the stigma of being an average person. And despite hanging out with Mika, who was contrary to himself, Gerard’s feeling of being average did not waver.

But he was fine with it. As long as it meant living a normal and peaceful life, he could not ask for more.

If it meant being an average person for his entire life, then so be it.

However, he ceased having those thoughts after Loogam underwent a major change recently.

Since the world conference and the graduation ceremony, it had changed for the worse.

Unable to escape together with Mika and the others, Gerard and other people, who also failed, had to stay back under the clutch of Lucio who wished for world domination and the indirect doom of humanity.

The remnants of humans in Loogam were all forced to check their resonance with the relics Lucio stored secretly and unfortunately, Gerard was one of the individuals who succeeded.

Usually, one would be happy to receive a relic, however, in this case, possessing a relic after having it forced upon by Lucio meant having to fight in the war for him.

In a place, where humans were treated like laughingstocks and discriminated by demons, Gerard was unwilling to remain average and accept his new situation, thus, he decided to rebel even though his situation could not look more dire.

Gerard told the innocent people and those who could not fight to flee while he was launching an attack on the demons.

Fortunately, most of them were able to escape but that led to the moment of Gerard almost dying.

In fact, he was actually meeting his death.

"At that moment, I perceived a voice speaking to me inside my head."

"?!"

Mika widened his eyes.

It was the first time, he learned about the existence of a person who went through the same as him.

"That voice suggested a deal with me..."

"What did that deal contain?" Mika asked sternly, albeit he had a bad feeling about that. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

"The voice promised me the strength I desired but in exchange... In exchange, I had to give up myself and my life..." Gerard stated with a weak smile.

It should not have been possible for Gerard to exist as a human anymore like he did now. He should be the half-mutated demon Mika encountered in the beginning.

"This me right now should be dead already..."

That was right.

It was just because Gerard was about to face his death that he accepted the voice’s terms.

"There’s no cure to revive someone from the dead..."

Mika bit his lower lip and clenched his fist even more.

"I told you, didn’t I?! I told you to wait for me a little longer! I will save you... I promise! I will kill Lucio and every demon! I will make them completely disappear and get my hands on the method to return you back!" Mika yelled while his throat hurt.

"..."

It was silent.

"Mika."

Gerard turned stern as he got up.

He was wobbling.

"Please... Can you do me one last favor...?" Gerard asked with a gentle smile.

"..."

But Mika could not meet his eyes.

"I’m glad that I was able to meet you one last time as myself so please-"

"This is not fair...!" Mika muttered, gritting his teeth.

"We didn’t even have the chance yet to sit down and have a nice long chat like back then...!"

Gerard tried to remain firm as his lips began to tremble.

"...?"

Then, he grabbed Mika’s hands and led them to the sheath of his silver sword.

"W-what are y-"

"Mika."

The silver sword was now pointing at Gerard while both their hands were gripping the sword’s handle.

"Please kill me while I’m still human." Gerard asked with firm eyes.

"You know that I can’t do that...!" Mika retorted painfully.

"I don’t want to die as a demon or monster."

Mika understood that. He really did. However, he could not bear to kill his own friend.

And Gerard understood that, too. He did not wish for Mika to experience killing his friend. He wanted to kill himself but he also knew that Mika would not allow that.

"Me, too... I wished that our reunion would have turned out differently." Gerard admitted, smiling faintly.

"But there’s no time left." he added.

"!"

Gerard let go of the silver sword and instead gripped Excalibur.

Its blade was about to get pulled out.

But it soon stopped moving.

"..."

Shutting his eyes forcefully and looking down at the ground, Mika swung his silver sword and sent off his friend.

With a smile on his face, Gerard’s head flew off his shoulders and landed on the soil.

Simultaneously when Excalibur dispersed into light, the headless body of Gerard slumped down to Mika’s feet.

From afar, Rachel and Belian were heading toward him, wanting to relay the message that Fuera was successfully cleansed of demons but Mika did not perceive them at that moment.

In the meantime, the group consisting of Lily, Sara and the Rostanta sisters infiltrated Loogam.

"Let’s split up into two teams." Olivia stated sternly.

The other three nodded.

Loogam was already alerted of their arrival after they took down a group of demons the moment they arrived.

Luckily, it was just a group of low-ranking demons, meaning that the group had no big trouble slaughtering them.

The team sensed the presence of just a couple of demons near the academy, however, they could not allow themselves to let their guards down. After all, those few demons appeared a lot stronger than those they faced so far.

"Ophelia. We will search for Lucio. Sara and Lily. I want you two to check on those who are being held captured here. After you’re done, meet up with us again."

"Understood!" Sara and Lily answered.

"However, I want all of you to retreat if the situation takes a turn for the worst."

"With that being said... Don’t die on me, you hear me?"

Everyone nodded although having a heavy heart after hearing that.

Those four split up just like they had planned.

It was night as Olivia and Ophelia headed to the academy itself, whereas Lily and Sara headed toward the dorms.

Outside the academy grounds, the group did not see any traces of anyone living there, leading to their assumption that the people were potentially held captive near the academy. And remembering the invasion two years ago, the dorms seemed like a reasonable place to harbor a large number of people.

However, the two girls soon stopped when they saw a group of individuals blocking their way.

"It’s already past your curfew so what are you two young ladies doing here?"

An old but gentle voice called them out.

"..."

Sara and Lily immediately took up their fighting stances.

The one leading the group of hostile-looking humans was a former teacher.

It was Ralph Arma and a couple of other staff members of the academy.

At the same time, the Rostanta siblings also encountered a new wave of enemies before reaching their destination.

"Heh, they seem appropriate for a warm-up!" Olivia huffed amusedly.

"Come on... This is clearly not a situation to fool around..." Ophelia sighed.

Ophelia scolded her sister lightly but in the end, she was even more excited than her.

"Are they really humans...?"

"To me, they appear more beast-like than actual beasts."

The ones Ophelia and Olivia were facing were two high-ranking demons.